He, therefore, whose design is not to be like unto God, according to his measure and the capacity of a creature, always misseth both of his end, his rule, and his way. Our Saviour would have his disciples to do all things so as that they may be the "children of their Father which is in heaven," Matt. v. 45; that is, like him, representing him, as children do their father. And the truth is, if this necessity of con- formity unto God be once out of our view and consideration, we are easily turned aside by the meanest temptation we meet withal. In brief, without that likeness and conformity unto God which consists in holiness, as we do under his eye bear the image of his great ad- versary the devil, so we can have no especial interest in him, nor hath he any in us.
2. The force of the argument ariseth from the respect it bears unto our actual inteixourse and comrmmion with God. This we are called unto ; and this, in all our duties of obedience, we must endea- vour to attain. If there be not in them a real intercourse between God and our souls, they are all but uncertain beatings of the air. When we are accepted in them, when God is glorified by them, then have we in them this intercourse and communion with God. Now, Avhereas God is holy, if we are not in our measure holy, according to his mind, this cannot be ; for God neither accepts of any duties from unholy persons nor is he glorified by them, and therefore as unto these ends doth he expressly reject and condemn them. It is a good duty to preach the word ; but " unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou should est take my covenant in thy mouth ? seeing thou hatest instruction, and cast- est my words behind thee,'' Ps. 1. 16, 17, — " seeing thou art unholy." To pray is a good duty; but unto them that are not " washed" and made " clean," and " put not away the evil of their doings from be- fore his eyes," saith God, " When ye sjjread forth your hands, I will
574 NECESSITY OF HOLINESS FROM THE [BOOK V.
hide mine eyes from you ; yea, Avlien ye make many prayers, I "vvill not hear," Isa. i. 15, 16. And the like maybe said of all other duties whatever.
It is certain, therefore, that whereas God is holy, if we are not so, all the duties which we design or intend to perform towards him are everlastingly lost, as unto their proper ends; for there is no inter- course or communion between light and darkness : " God is light, and in him is no darkness at all;" and "if we say that we have fellow- ship with him, and walk in darkness," as all unholy persons do, " we lie, and do not the truth : but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ," ] John i. 5-7, 8. Now, what man that shall consider this, unless he be infatuated, would, for the love of any one sin, or out of conformity to the world, or any other thing, whereby the essence and truth of holiness is im- peached, utterly lose and forfeit all the benefit and fruit of all those duties wherein perhaps he hath laboured, and which he hath, it may be, been at no small charge withal? But yet this is the condition of all men who come short in any thing that is essentially necessary unto universal holiness. All they do, all they suffer, all the pains they take, in and about religious duties, all their compliance with convictions, and what they do therein, within doors and without, is all lost, as unto the great ends of the glory of God and their own eternal blessedness, as sure as God is holy.
3. It ariseth from a respect unto our future everlasting enjoyment of him. This is our utmost end, which if we come short of (life itself is the greatest loss), better ten thousand times we had never been; for without it a continuance in everlasting miseries is inse- parable from our state and condition. Now, this is never attainable by any unholy person. "Follow holiness," saith our apostle, "without which no man shall see the Lord;" for it, is the " pure in heart" only that " shall see God," Matt. v. 8. It is hereby that we are " made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light," Col. i. 12. Neither can we attain it before we are thus made meet for it. No unclean thing, nothing that defileth or is defiled, shall ever be brought into the glorious presence of this holy God. There is no imagination wherewith mankind is besotted more foolish, none so pernicious, as this, that persons not purified, not sanctified, not made holy, in this life, should afterward be taken into that state of blessedness which consists in the enjoyment of God. There can be no thought more reproachful to his glory, nor more inconsistent with the nature of the things themselves ; for neither can such persons enjoy him, nor would God himself be a reward unto them. They can have nothing whereby they should adhere unto him as their chiefest good, nor can